Auxiliary Disciplines of History in the Age of Internet

2. Institutional Chronology (archontology) on the Web.

2.1 Web Sites

An interest in studying the biographies and chronologies of rulers and high state officers emerged long before it became a part of history and chronology as academic disciplines. This distinctive interest in studying the chronologies of heads of states, governments, ministries and other offices, which may be rigorously defined as institutional chronology or even as "archontology" [1] (from Greek, "archon", meaning "ruler"; used specifically for supreme magistrates, as in Athens, or even kings, as in the Cimmerian Bosporus), currently also relies on abundance of the Internet sources and tremendously benefited from the entrance into the Age of Information.

A unique feature of archontology as an auxiliary discipline is that the studies in this field normally involve a wide range of interdisciplinary researches and obtains necessary information from neighbor sciences: jurisprudence, linguistics, chronology, genealogy and others. Existing on the cross point of many academic disciplines, archontology is a fine example of how the concentration of informational resources on the Web and communication between researchers help general regeneration of this discipline.

A collection of virtual knowledge in the field of archontology are currently presented today in two main forms of information collection on the Internet as web sites and discussion forums. The most valuable part is the group of web sites, which have been developing for years. This group may be classified as professional web portals, where the information is not simply collected, but also sorted, verified and worked out in details. Some of these projects exist for a number of years steadily developing and expanding the area of covered subjects and topics. Ob serving the process of their development allows us to conclude that all the areas of research presented in this projects are growing both in terms of time chronology and geographical coverage.

This group of web sites operate both as a source of knowledge for scholars and students and as a consumer of enormous volumes of information in printed and virtual form. A few projects changed their locations from placing their respective information on the free hosting servers to registering their own domain names easily picked up by the search engines and listed in virtual catalogues so that all those interested in history and chronology may be able to retrieve the information they seek. Such approach to web site handling signifies the transition to professional level. For instance, two major web sites containing extensive information on institutional chronology acquired their own domain names - www.rulers.org and www.worldstatesmen.org.

The second and much broader group of informational portals partially related to archontology includes the materials on neighboring disciplines royal and nobility genealogy. It is extremely difficult to make a categorization of hundreds of web sites, whose authors not being professionals in this field cannot provide any valuable information in terms of primary sources or to serve as a source of academic knowledge. It is true that sometimes it is not an easy task to draw a line between a valuable from scientific viewpoint web site and someone's hobby. The information should be carefully verified before it may be used as a source for researches. What should be a possible solution for resolving this issues is a certification of web sites by authoritative organizations. Such effort, for instance, was taken by the British Academy's PORTAL [2], directory of online resources in the humanities and social sciences . Unfortunately, a wide range of web sites serves as a vast and inextinguishable source of misinformation, impeding the process of search for knowledge in various fields of humanities including history and archontology. Indiscriminate and untraceable parasitism/plagiarism plus unauthorized copying of the information from other sources become an obstacle both in terms of information's authenticity and its academic value.

A short analysis of the most important portals providing various information for history and/or archontology and neighbor disciplines follows.

The web project Rulers was established in 1995 and still managed by Ben Schemmel, whose sphere of interests includes chronologies of heads of states, governments, as well as ministries and other offices of practically all countries existing in modern world and many polities, which ceased to exist in the past. Recently, the author started adding political biographies of most significant politicians, who contributed to national politics. Strictly speaking, the Rulers is build using the same blueprint drawing as did many hard copy works in this fields published in the past. The width of research rather than the depth of study is a dominating feature of this project, but it is fairly compensated by the widest coverage of geographical area and time periods. On the one hand, a certain limitation is that the information contained in the database does not goes further that the 17th century, but on the other hand frequent updates and close monitoring of all events related to the changes in national governments allow to keep the project it up-to-date placing it in the rank of most usable resources on archontology on the Web.

The second long existing compendium of the information related to archontology is the Zárate's Political Collections. Built by Spanish researcher, Roberto Ortiz de Zárate, the Collections focus on the leaders of national governments since 1945. Interestingly, this web project was launched as a personal effort of Mr. Ortiz, but eventually laid foundations of the Spanish-language resource, Biografias de Líderes Politicos CIDOB (Centre of International Relations and International Cooperation), a part of the web site of the Centre of International Relations and International Cooperation. This combination clearly shows how the information collected for a single purpose of indexing the heads of states and governments grew into a vast collection of biographies, which might prove to be useful for a variety of academic disciplines. Such symbiosis would have hardly been imaginable in the pre-Internet epoch as the integration of different resources might have been difficult.

The records of Ben Cahoon World Statesmen are another all-time reference to rulers, heads of states and governments with supplementary information and links to national constitutions, flags and anthems. The structure of "World Statesmen" is very similar to "Rulers", but in some cases the entries on several nations cover additional periods preceding those included in "Rulers". However, careful study of message exchange in the Datapol newsgroup makes it possible to conclude that the information on "Rulers" is authentic, while "Statesmen" for a long time existed as a mirror of Schemmel's project, though run by different author.

The review of web sites related or devoted to archontology would be incomplete without mentioning another unique collection of chronologies compiled by Bob Hilkens States and Regents of the World. Despite the fact that the above mentioned web sites cover practically all spheres of interest in archontology, Hilkens was successful in finding another niche in chronology of state leaders. The web portal, which he manages, focuses on what may be characterized as "rarities" transitional political regimes in occupied countries, ecclesiastical authorities, not internationally recognized polities, provincial governments, revolutionary regimes.

A different approach was used by the author of this article in building the web site, where he presented his own studies in archontology National Politics Web Guide. Focusing on providing information on historical rulers, politicians, political bodies, and other leaders of selected nations with dates of rule or office and selected biographies, the Guide examines the details of historical events surrounding the changes of governments, placing emphasis on primary sources. Several articles on theory and practice of institutional chronology (archontology) serve as a valuable asset both for scientists in this discipline and those interested in it as a hobby. Interactive guestbook, where visitors may leave their messages, proves that the Guide serves a number of purposes including educational aspect. The Guide was listed by the British Academy as one of the entry points for those working in higher education and research.

2.2 Forums

Unlike many other auxiliary disciplines of history, institutional chronology (archontology) is not completely presented in the web forums and newsgroups. The main forum is the DATAPOL, which is moderated by a pioneer of virtual archontology Roberto Ortiz de Zarate, author of the Zárate's Political Collections. This newsgroup was set up a few years ago, but neither the number of postings, nor the volume of information supplied by the forum members do not indicate that it may become a large information exchange outlet, where every inquiry could be thoroughly considered.

A number of other newsgroups may serve as valuable outlets for seeking the information on chronology of rulers and higher state officers:

The significance of forums should not be underestimated as it provides access to what one may call international expertise. History, literature, linguistics and dozens of other humanitarian discipline often require an expertise depending on geographical region to which an academic issue is related to. For example, an important part of archontology is authentic styles of rulers, which cannot be easily traced as a few researchers may claim the command of hundreds of languages in which it is written and used. While such internationally recognized languages as English, German, French and Spanish are widely spoken, a researcher could hardly rely on his or her knowledge of Swahili or Kyrgyz. The forums provide an excellent opportunity to communicate with native speakers

Another unique feature of forums is the dialogue between academic researchers and enthusiasts. Many web site publishers and owners are at the same time members of various newsgroups, which they see as an opportunity for advertising their projects, sharing information and communicating with those who can provide additional expertise on the matters of their interest.

Continued in Part 3.